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Fishers Ghost Creek
|coordinates=-34.0687077, 150.8063653 |rating= |map= }} Fishers Ghost Creek in Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia runs through Koshiga and Bradbury parks as a tributarity to the Bow Bowing Bunburry Creek. Ghost Creek commemorates the murder of the convict Frederick Fisher in 1826. It is reportedly haunted by . Fred Fisher In 1826, Fred Fisher was a former convict who had been pardoned and had bought thirty acres of land around what is now Campbelltown. Fisher had became very successful using his land, he was among the first people to make paper in New South Wales. Fisher's neighbour was another landowning ex-convict named George Worrall, who was not as successful as Fisher. Fisher got into debt and was in danger of having his land seized by the law, in order to avoid this he signed it over to Worrall. The authorities saw this as a form of evasion and took Fisher into custody. Fisher was imprisoned for six months. During this time, George Worrall claimed that the land once owned by Fisher belonged to him and that Fisher had given it to him just before he went to prison. Worrall began using Fishers land for farming. When Fred Fisher got out of prison six months later, the first thing he done was find George Worrall. Fisher trusted Worrall and believed that he would give him his land back. This was not the case however, As Worrall had always been jealous of Fishers land and was happy to own it. George Worrall stalked Fred Fisher and killed him at what is now Fishers Ghost Creek. After this, Worrall started wearing Fishers clothes and claimed that after Fisher had gotten out of prison he had gone back to England, and that before he left he had given Worrall 'Power of Attorney' over his general affairs and an indefinite lease on what was his land. Worrall began to sell some of Fishers possessions, such as a horse, to the people of Campbelltown. When asked what boat Fisher had boarded to return to Britain, Worrall answered that Fisher had taken a ship called the 'Lost St Vincent'. When people discovered that there had been no such boat that had docked from Sydney, suspicion fell on Worrall. Worrall reacted to this by forging a letter from Fisher telling him that he was alright in England and that he was unlikely to ever return to Australia. Four months after Fred Fisher had been murdered. A Man named John Farley was making his way home from the pub when he saw the ghost of Fred Fisher sitting on a bridge. According to Farley, the ghost did not say anything but instead pointed to the Creek where he was killed. Farley was shocked and ran to a hotel to tell the people what had happened, this incident, coupled with George Worrall's strange behaviour, led the police to launch an investigation into the whereabouts of Fisher. The Policeman who held the investigation was George Luland. Luland took an Aboriginal named Gilbert to the creek, Gilbert than tasted the water and said that he could taste the 'Fat of a white fellow'. They then started searching the ground around the creek by pushing rods into it. Eventually further up the creek they discovered the buried body of Fred Fisher. The Police arrested George Worrall and he was hanged one week later. Festival 'Fisher's Ghost' has become an essential element of Campbelltown's collective memory: the story is re-enacted as part of a festival held there every year since 1960. For many years the name Fishers Ghost was attached to the reserve that was renamed Bradbury Park in 1965. The name was kept for the creek itself, but it too seemed to be dying until 2006, when Campbelltown City Council and the Campbelltown Arts Centre began restoring and revegetating the section that runs through the centre's land. Hauntings Fisher's ghost has sometimes been seen around the creek or sitting on the bridge where he appeared to John Farley. Some claim that Fisher's ghost haunts all of Campbelltown and wanders the entire area at all times. Resources * https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/fishers_ghost_creek